'Official English' would encourage learning
Anita Campitelli's claim (Dec. 12) that the "Official English" movement is xenophobic was inane and her attack on Charles Davenport was contemptible.
The U.S. has always been a country of many languages, but the common language is English. My mom tells of my immigrant grandparents ignoring her if she spoke to them in Croatian – that's how important learning English was to them. It was key to being sure that their children could succeed in their adopted country.
While the U.S. has always been a country of many languages, it has never been a country of two languages. Witness the Sears clothing department sign "Men" with the inimical "Caballeros" underneath. Go to south Florida or southern California and find enclaves generations old where young adults cannot speak standard English. These are not immigrants of the same ilk as my grandparents.
Aquinas said it best: "Diversity of language alienates men from other men." Communication is hard enough without language barriers. Immigrants come here for better lives; a key to getting that better life is learning English. Providing government services predominantly in English is a positive motivator in that direction, not xenophobia.
Walter J. Sperko
Greensboro
Comments (6)
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English as the official language? Would this outlaw anything in Spanish? You reference Sears, well as long companies want the business of Spanish speaking people they will continue to put up signs in Spanish. If I owned a business I would surely have some Spanish signs. I want their business. What constitutes knowing English? I'd be thrilled if born and raised Americans spoke English, as opposed to the crap some people speak now a days.
Posted on January 1, 2007 9:34 AM
Putting the argument of an "official language" aside, I think Americans stand out in the world as the least able to speak in more than one language. I am in awe of Europeans who can converse readily in three or more languages--as I struggle to get through my "Spanish in 15 minutes a day" book, barely able to ask where the men's room is in a Mexican restaurant without getting a look of puzzlement.
I think our stubborn over-reliance on English has hurt our ability to understand other cultures besides our own.
Posted on January 1, 2007 10:53 AM
It's always amazing to find out how many people just don't know beans about the country they live in. Every major American city (no, G'boro is not a major city) has enclaves where a language other than English is the language of the street. They're called Chinatowns, Little Havanas, Hamtramacks, Little Italys, whatever. There are sections of coungtryside where English is at best a second language. English was not even the first language spoken by European immigrants to the territory now occupied by the USA.
In most cases, second or third generation children of immigrant parents have become fluent in English, but only in parts of Louisianna and on Indian reservations have they been forced to abandon their original languages. How hypocritical can it be for reactionaries to recommend that government agencies force people to learn a new language when the reactionaries don't even want them to do what the Constitution says they should do!
It is very difficult for most adults to learn a new language. The ability to learn it fluently without obvious accent stops for the vast majority of people in the early teens. Most immigrants, legal or illegal, want and need to learn enough English to get jobs and care for their families; it's just very hard for older people to do this, and even with the best of help, it doesn't happen overnight. If it were easy, maybe so many Americans wouldn't be so ignorant of other languages. I wonder how much Latin, the lingua franca of Aquinas, this LTE writer can speak or read.
Posted on January 1, 2007 2:23 PM
Mr. Tew, you are exactly right when you say that it is difficult for an adult to learn a new language. Believe it or not, the best time to start learning a language is before birth. By three months, babies from English-speaking households respond differently to phoneme boundaries (such as at what point voicing must occur to differentiate a z from an s) than babies from Spanish-speaking households. The older the brain gets, the more that all aspects of language are "hardwired" and the more difficult it is to establish new pathways.
As an ESL teacher, I see my students struggle for three hours a day, five days a week, to learn this language. Many students study for years to attain a level of English that is functional for their needs. Believe me, just like Mr. Sperko's grandparents, they want to learn English. Give them time.
And Mr. Sperko, I will say that you probably don't speak Serbo-Croatian at all. That is sad. Learning a new language doesn't mean that the old language should be forgotten. It is good for the brain to know more than one language. If you are interested in getting in touch with your Croatian roots, there is a substantial Serb, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegran population here in Greensboro, including one of my fellow ESL teachers.
Posted on January 1, 2007 5:54 PM
I believe the question would be fairly moot if it weren't for illegal immigration. It is the large surge in spanish-speaking illegal immigrants that is making this such a big issue.
Handle that problem and I think the rest would mostly clear up on its own.
Posted on January 2, 2007 12:00 PM
"Witness the Sears clothing department sign "Men" with the inimical "Caballeros" underneath."
inimical \ih-NIM-ih-kul\, adjective:
1. Having the disposition or temper of an enemy; unfriendly; unfavorable.
2. Opposed in tendency, influence, or effects; antagonistic; adverse.
Is "inimical" really the word you meant here?
Posted on February 20, 2007 11:56 AM